Even though the incident took place in January 2022, smoke from the fire finally made its way earlier this week. SpiceJet issued a statement saying the smoking incident took place on its Dubai-Delhi flight on January 20 when passengers were boarding the plane and the cabin crew members were busy completing the on-boarding procedure. After investigation, the airline had put the passenger on “no flying list” for 15 days in February, it mentioned.
Social influencer and “serial offender” Bobby Kataria, who has over 63 lakh followers on social media showcased himself smoking inside a SpiceJet flight. The clip gas sparked outrage among netizens ever since it was posted. The video shows him brazenly lighting a cigarette in one of the back rows of a SpiceJet aircraft.
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The Haryanvi flyer had been put on a no-fly list for 15 days in February.
Twitterati reacted to the incident and called out the influencer for his behaviour. “New rule for Bobby Kataria?” wrote one Nitish Bhardwaj. Users Shweta Singh and Lydia slammed the security lapse:
Soon after the video went viral, many took to Twitter to flag the video to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. Although the minister had initially said that the incident was being investigated, he later tweeted that this had happened in January and that a police complaint had been lodged.
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Passengers are not permitted to take a lighter on the plane and are certainly not allowed to smoke on board. On Twitter, SpiceJet put out a statement saying: “This is with reference to a video on social media of a passenger smoking onboard a SpiceJet aircraft. The matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to our notice and a complaint had been filed by the airline with the Udyog Vihar police station in Gurugram.”
“The video, the investigation had revealed, was shot on 20th January 2022 while passengers were boarding flight SG 706 scheduled to operate from Dubai to Delhi. The said passenger and his co-passengers shot the video on the 21st row when the cabin crew were occupied with completing the on-boarding procedure. None of the passengers or crew were aware of the act.”
As per the regulations of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), an airline has the power to ban an “unruly” passenger for a certain period of time if he or she violates any rules.
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